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number of jobs increases a printing company may need to handle hundreds or even thousands of jobs every day and without an intelligent workflow the complexity quickly becomes impossible to manage efficiently prinect can route jobs automatically to the appropriate devices including versafire digital presses with cloud based and on premise solutions working together to reduce manual intervention for janine workflow is increasingly becoming the real decision maker in production the press itself may be incredibly advanced but it is the software that determines how efficiently work moves through the plant which device receives each job and how all the different technologies are connected developing that workflow is far from simple heidelberg has to consider offset toner inkjet flexo inline and nearline finishing third party equipment and very different customer production environments every new feature has to work within an increasingly complex ecosystem without creating new problems somewhere else that is why visiting customers remains so important janine recently met a commercial printer with a substantial offset operation who believes that within five to ten years its commercial production could become entirely digital even for someone working closely with these trends every day hearing a customer state that ambition so directly was surprising and this is where technologies such as jetfire and prinect become particularly interesting for an existing heidelberg offset customer adding digital production does not necessarily mean creating another separate production island the ambition is to build one integrated ecosystem where offset and digital can be managed through the same workflow the next major step is already coming prinect touch free will expand further with offset becoming part of the automated production environment as heidelberg continues toward increasingly autonomous print production uwe alexander product manager digital gallus group shift uwe alexander from gallus was busy all day at shift as there was strong interest in the gallus one on display i watched one of his presentations which was really good and afterward we had a great chat the presentation he gave of course was about the amazing opportunities you have with the gallus one and gallus five but that applies to many digital label presses however the gallus ecosystem is interesting as it s not just one solution but many and as with most flexo presses these can be built modularly to serve the very specific needs a customer has joseph banich senior prinect digital specialist heidelberg canada most consider prinect a heidelberg only product but not only has prinect opened up to many third party suppliers but prinect itself is also used by printing companies that don t run heidelberg presses jo banich is a prinect specialist and of course it s great to learn from a senior prinect digital specialist you can learn by listening to this one as well de volker havel manager meinders elstermann shift at shift in heidelberg morten b reitoft meets volker from meinders elstermann to talk about technology automation and why being among the first to adopt new solutions can create a real competitive advantage meinders elstermann already operates digital printing technologies from hp and canon and has now added the heidelberg jetfire to its production setup but the conversation quickly moves beyond hardware and into one of the most important challenges facing modern printing companies how to manage an increasingly complex production environment with smaller jobs faster turnaround times and more equipment to coordinate volker explains why prinect touch free has become an important part of the company s production strategy by automating more decisions and allowing jobs to move between different production technologies even late in the process the system helps reduce manual workload while increasing productivity the interview also touches on the challenges of introducing new software the importance of analyzing new technology before implementation and why working closely with suppliers such as heidelberg through field testing can help shape better solutions and with ai becoming an increasingly important topic across the industry volker also shares what he hopes to gain from shift combining the discussions and presentations with the practical technology demonstrated at heidelberg s home of print en bernd zipper founder ceo zipcon consulting shift at shift in heidelberg morten b reitoft sits down with bernd zipper for a conversation about ucp mcp agentic print and why printers may have a much bigger opportunity in front of them than many currently realize bernd argues that agentic print can bring small medium and large printing companies back into the game but only if they understand how the new digital infrastructure works the conversation explores how printers can make their capabilities visible to ai agents how ucp can help structure what a company offers and why mcp can become an important part of connecting print businesses to the emerging agentic economy the key point is that this future may not be driven only by price delivery speed location sustainability substrate production capabilities and customer specific requirements can all inform how an ai agent identifies the right supplier for more complex print products the process can also open the door to direct communication and quotation rather than simply comparing standard prices bernd also stresses that printers do not need to become it specialists themselves but they do need the right it partners and they need to start now his message is clear understand mcp first move into agentic print prepare for ucp and above all keep learning the discussion ends with examples from companies such as canva vista adobe and zazzle showing how print is already being integrated directly into digital applications for bernd that is precisely why printers must avoid becoming merely the final production link in someone else s value chain and instead make sure they remain visible connected and commercially relevant in an ai driven future de matthias schmid managing director schmid fehr shift at shift in heidelberg morten b reitoft meets matthias from goldach in switzerland a printing company owner who has transformed a traditional print business into a broader communication and automation company today the company covers much more than print its activities include online and print services b2b shops software development process automation digital printing inkjet printing lettershop and logistics the goal is to manage as much of the communication chain as possible for its customers matthias is also presenting at shift where he shares an important message for smaller printing companies automation is no longer something reserved for the largest players with 34 employees his company has built highly automated workflows that allow jobs ordered through b2b shops to move through the system into prinect touch free and all the way to production with almost no human intervention the first person involved may only see the job when it is ready to run on a jetfire for matthias automation is not primarily about reducing staff it is about producing faster more efficiently and with greater process security while creating a better working environment for the people already in the company the conversation also touches on succession matthias son and daughter are expected to take over the business one day and he sees automation and continued development as part of preparing the company for the next generation de rhaidar horn vertriebsleiter müller martini shift at shift in heidelberg morten b reitoft meets rainer who has taken on a new role as sales director for germany following the integration of hunkeler into müller martini in the conversation rainer talks about the transition the responsibility of leading the german sales organization and the work involved in bringing the strengths of müller martini and hunkeler even closer together with a strong team an extensive finishing portfolio and the continued development of smart factory concepts he sees significant opportunities in the german market the discussion also turns to müller martini s partnership with heidelberg at shift the company is not only participating in the conversations around ai and automation but is also demonstrating equipment and showing how finishing can become part of a more connected production environment for rainer events such as shift are also about relationships meeting customers partners and friends while gaining a better understanding of heidelberg s direction and how the two companies can continue working together and with heidelberg s strong position in offset and müller martini s broad portfolio in finishing from perfect binding to saddle stitching and beyond the partnership represents an important connection between print production and postpress en azael de la cruz performance service manager heidelberg mexico shift mexico is becoming an increasingly important market for the printing industry and at the heidelberg shift event we caught up with a colleague from heidelberg mexico to discuss how quickly the market is changing one of the key priorities in mexico today is performance improvement new presses and new software bring significantly more intelligence automation and production capabilities than equipment from twenty years ago but the real value only appears when customers actually use those possibilities technologies such as artificial intelligence intellistart and autonomous production features can help improve productivity and return on investment but only if printing companies are prepared to change the way they work that transformation is particularly interesting in mexico because the market is highly diverse some printing companies already operate at a technological and organizational level comparable with leading companies in europe and the us while others are still working in a much more traditional way the challenge for heidelberg is therefore not only to sell technology but also to help customers move from what might traditionally have been seen as graphic arts production toward a more industrial and technology driven approach we also talk about mexico s relationship with the us and the broader global market while domestic opportunities are growing mexican printers are increasingly producing for international customers and therefore need to compete at the same quality productivity and technology level as companies elsewhere in the world that is also one of the reasons for traveling all the way from mexico to shift in heidelberg the objective is to learn how technology automation ai and new production concepts are being used in europe and then bring that knowledge back to mexican customers who are increasingly interested in the same developments mexico may once have been viewed by some european suppliers primarily as a market for used equipment but that picture is changing quickly more companies are investing in new technology and the ambition is clearly to compete on the same level as the rest of the world en jürgen grimm head of prinect heiderlberger druckmaschinen shift jürgen grimm has spent more than 30 years with heidelberg moving through service marketing press business management in the us and now software that broad experience gives him a rare perspective on how both heidelberg and the printing industry have changed and why the next transformation may be one of the most fundamental yet at the heidelberg shift event we talk about software ai connectivity cloud technology and the enormous challenge of bringing increasingly fragmented production environments together jürgen describes heidelberg connect as the glue between systems but also makes an important point no printer operates only heidelberg equipment if software is going to serve customers properly it has to become increasingly open and capable of connecting machines and systems across the entire production environment that matters when an average printing company can have more than 40 different software and machine systems in operation historically technologies such as jdf helped establish common definitions and structures but the future of connectivity will likely look very different apis modern data models cloud infrastructure and new approaches such as mcp are making integration easier while ai creates new possibilities for understanding and using the data already available heidelberg has been collecting machine data for decades initially with service and predictive monitoring in mind today that same foundation can potentially support much broader applications jürgen distinguishes between the vertical view of individual equipment and the horizontal view a printer has across an entire production process and it is precisely this horizontal integration that represents one of the industry s biggest opportunities and challenges we also discuss how quickly expectations are changing people compare business software not only with other printing applications but with the technology they use every day amazon canva ai tools and consumer applications that have fundamentally changed our perception of usability and speed for jürgen the role of a technology leader is therefore changing as well it is no longer simply about defining a five year development roadmap inside one central r d department it is about listening to customers learning from other industries identifying which technologies are real and which are hype connecting hundreds of different experiences and then turning those insights into scalable solutions in other words leadership may increasingly be about connecting the dots and finding a way to industrialize what those dots reveal en elke steinbach head of global marketing heidelberger druckmaschinen shift events like heidelberg shift do not happen by accident they require months of planning conversations with customers and a clear idea of what the event should actually achieve at shift in heidelberg we talk with elke steinbach from heidelberg about how the concept developed and why the event has grown from around 200 participants last year to more than 300 this year from the beginning the ambition was to create something different from a traditional technology event heidelberg already organizes many events where products solutions and new developments naturally take center stage but shift was designed to leave more room for discussion networking and learning from others experiences that is also why customers play such an important role on stage hearing directly from people who are working with technology workflows automation and transformation every day can often be more valuable than another corporate presentation for heidelberg it also creates an opportunity to listen marketing development management and sales may all have different perspectives but being in the same room with custome...